1: a sudden stretching thrust or pass (as with a sword)2: a sudden forward rush or reach

How do you use it?

The baseball was hit high into the air and it arced into the stands behind home plate where Mike made a lunge in an effort to catch it.

Are you a word wiz?

From which of the following languages do you think English took the word "lunge"?

A. French

B. Hebrew

C. Malay

D. Algonquin

Did today's quiz have you reaching for an answer? We hope you didn't pass up choice A. The noun "lunge" entered English in the mid-1700s from the French word "allonge," meaning "extension, reach." (The French word traces back to the ultimate source of "lunge," Latin "longus," which means "long.") Soon after English speakers started using "lunge" as a noun, the word came to be used as verb meaning "to move with or as if with a lunge" or "to make a lunge (as with a sword)," as in "Tim lunged at the stray cat, but it only hissed and ran off."